Wednesday, October 26, 2011

im glad you sent the package already bc the mail is extremely slow right now bc brasil is still on strike with the whole mail situation so i hope i get it soon. i think im still missing one package that didnt arrive, o i went to the federal police today and resolved everything with that im not ilegal anymore ahah i can stay here at least till sept 2012.

welp alot has happened this week and im learning every day how to have more patience and trust in the lords time.. sister barão and i have been working really hard trying to find people to teach.. its been a struggle to get people to give the right address that live in our area. everyone just works here and lives somewhere else. my work effort hasnt changed but the results are slow. i feel sometimes.. i hope im not doing anything wrong. where are the blessings? sister barão was gettin discouraged but i tell her everyday we have to have patience well find the elects, the lord will show them to us. this sunday was the primary program so cute! we had a few people in church but no one solid. i love the members, they call me gringa or "gringinha" one sister in the ward made feijão which is a heavy lunch with all kinds of meat i mean litterally everything including feet,ears, fat..everything and she said sorry gringa ill make potatoes for you next time ha i love her she is so funny. president parrella has two counselors that help him with everything and they are both in my ward. they had a meeting last week and president parrella told them " you guys have the best sister i have, if you guys dont help her with references im taking her out" then he told them that i was in the top 10 that baptize here in the mission. i didnt know what to say when they told me that i felt honored, surprised and humbled. this means that i dont know how long i will stay here with sister barão.. then pres told them that she is dangerous ha she baptizes rich or poor it doesnt matter she teaches with the spirit.... wow i didnt know what to say i felt the pressure for sure bc the results havnt been coming. it wasnt until sunday night the blessings started to come. we found our first true elect here. when sister barão invited her to be baptized she said " yup this is the church of christ" we left and sister barão said ! they exist!" haha we got really excited to get to work, monday we found three more elects and are helping them everyday. the blessings are coming!!! we just have to have patience. hebrews 10:36 "for ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of god ye might recieve the promise" the key word here is might. we have to do our part and if we are considered worthy the lord will bless us. this is why we cant ever give up bc we dont know when the blessings will come but they always do. im excited to be here... im so focused on the mission right now i dont think about anything else. my time is running out and im finally understanding the work. you see every person as a potential member of the kingdom, how thier lives would change and how they would love to understand the truth. we have been studying alot about opeing our mouth and proclaiming the gospel to this generation in d and c. once you understand the purpose of this life it becomes easy to do the lords work. he wakes me up every morning and says we got people to find... lets go. im exhausted but i dont think about anything else but my purpose. i love you all. everyone tells me that this is the hardest area but i just trust in the lord and he will bless us

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

helllllllllllooooooi cant believe christmas is around the corner already... requests hmmmm idk at the moment i cant think of much maybe a cute shirt im so sick of my clothessssssss its crazy. but i got the skirt thank you! i would love a take 5 bar haha that would be nice..

ya im misisng one package with the foto chip.. woooooooooow ummm who are ambers kids they are so different and big!!!! zoe looks like me haha i thought it was a pic of at first glance ahaha she is sooooo cute and dane is a babe. how tall is bren dog? is he taller then me yet?

wow where to begin i love this area!!!! its soooo prettyyyyyyyy. its huge and im lost about 99% of the time but i love it. so basically im in the city the rich part of the city, i feel like im in a mix of newport beach with a mix of new york. there is an avenue called bandeirantes and looks like it belongs to california unfortunately if you are rich you dont like to hear the gospel ha... there is also a part in our area that is ghetto.. we tried the city a few days and were getting very few results made contacts on the street and no one lives here just works and goes back home to venda nova haha everyone from venda nova works here. so we tried out the ghetto a little bit to train sister barão... i love it. the ghetto is like its only littel village it reminds me of harry potter theirs alley ways little markets, bakerys and you dont have to leave if you dont have to. they have everything there for you. we found an investigator there her name is bá. she is hilarious. we took her to church with us sunday. the ward is great. its super contrast, you have really really rich members and then people from the ghetto there is no in between so thats a little bit awk. the missionary leader in the ward is the best in the world!!!! i have never seen someone so dedicated in my life! he is so animated and wants to help with everything. he is a dentist in the center and his office is full of boms and pics of christ. to give you an idea he looks like laurens dad dr rice haha. his family is the heart of this ward his son is the bishop and his wife is part of the relief society presdiency. i dont think ive ever met anyone like him before. im excited to work with him. were trying to get the ward excited but unfortunately they are in the dumps bc the success of missioanry work here is really slow and havent had results for a while.. well thats about to change. were ready to work and some how the lord will bless us. we had a meeting for three hours about how we can help the ward. no one wants me to leave.. when do you go home? can you finish your mission here? uhhh thats up to the lord. but i want to do my best to help them here. its super overwhelming to see our area and how big it is but we dont let it get to us. sister barão is great she is a little nervous still when it comes to teaching and inviting but that will change and i think the crying will stop too soon i hope haha its natural.

o ok so this is funny.. at the church every tuesday night we have activities for investigators and members there is an english class right... great. i can speak englsih to them. FALSE. i cant speak english!!!! sooo embarassing iwas speaking wrong!!!! i got up in front and i tried to talk and nothing came out im sure i was super red and felt awk like no other i spit out a few words but it was really hard. the teacher had to correct me so i basically had to sit down and gave the time to the teacher hahah who would of thought.. excited to hear me at christmas??? im not i wont be able to talk to you guys haha.. speaking of home sister hunsaker leaves in 5 weeks i got to say goodbye to her today bc we renewed our visas well she did anyway i have to go back next week so i dont get booted out of the country. the work moves forward here. were working hard and trying to be patient. i tell sister barão everyday if were obedient, diligently working the lord will bless us so we just need to smile.

life is better when we smile isnt it? we can decide everyday to do so.

o ps blake we taught a family from venezuela and she told us she knows the church it was super strong there and was always full of young men and young women.. she said are you guys mormons? ha it was funny to hear her accident she spoke most of the time in spanish and i underdstood.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

wow where to begin so much has happened and i have zero time to explain.. so its been a crazy week literally.

ill begin with this past weekend. i decided that i need to love thursdays and fridays. ive never liked these days on the mish bc there is nothing but work work work, saturday you have one day before sunday and have interviews sunday=baptisms, monday= plan, tues= district meeting and wed =p day.. i was praying really hard to think outside the box last week what else i could do in venda nova i have a total of 7 and half months there and was feeling like i hit a wall. on saturday it was funny, we knocked on a door and i said to sister batista i think i already have been here sure enough the man said o hey i remember you "o hey ha how are ya?" the next door was the same... we walked past the bakery and two people gave me a wave.. sister batista "do you know them?" nope.. but they know me ha she said who have you not taught here? i just had to laugh because you can look at it as a blessing. sunday was patricias baptism and she was needing this pick me up.. her husband has been in the hospital for a few months and has been searching for her church.. but it amazes me how the lord still finds people for us to teach when i think ive taugt everyone im not even close... i remembered a contact we did on the street with sister dunlop and decided to try one more time, the girl wasnt there but the mom let us in..the mom has been going to her church for 14 years. great. we got to teach with the s´pirit big time on this one for anything to happen. as the lesson started it was almost automatic, i felt the spirit really strong with her when it came to the invite she said "wait i have to get baptized again?" welp yes, you didnt have the priesthood. "great what do i have to do, can we start now?" um yes we start now hahah elect. the lord gave us this contact bc it was her mother that was waiting to here the truth. i love how the lord works.

monday! okay so im supposed to stay with sister batista for three months aka 2 transfers to finsih training her so when we were plainngin i wasnt thinking about getting a phone call from president. it was about 1030 and i decided to get the phone in the other room.. pres already called! what? i called him back and said sister corbin its your time to leave venda nova! you will be transfered to banderantes "okay pres we will go there" no no only you, you will go there open an area of elders and train again! "What?? really? i wont stay with sister batista?" "no i need you in this area, the elders are being lazy and i need you to go in tehre and show them how to work!" wow im not gonna lie i was shocked. sister batista stayed and will be with another american and she will help her finish her training. sister batista started to cry... she didnt want me to go. this area is in the center of belo literally.. this church is the biggest and the ward is the strongest but because its in the center its super hard to teach, there isnt houses to knock on just interphones to get rejected... this area never had sisters before and pres wanted to switch it up. he told the ward that i am a "batizadora" o great. all i can do is trust in the lord that he will lead me to those that are willing and ready to hear. I tried to say goodbye to everyone in venda nova but there wasnt enough time.. the saddest part is that i left adriana (an investigator that we have been working with for 2 months). tuesday night she showed me her clothes she picked out for her baptisim this sunday and was so excited. my heart was crushed. i had to tell her that i came by to say goodbye and that i will be transfered the next day. she burst into tears and didnt know what to say. i told her that she has sister batista and the ward now and that id otn need to be here anymore. it took everythign in me not to cry too, i know its my time to leave. i left sister batista 6 baptisms for the next two weeks and so she wont have any probs but like i expected we arrived at the apartment in the center with a note that said "sisters, welcome, this area is great but unfortunately we have no one for you to teach, no one to get baptized this sunday or the next" sweet we got to start running... im with sister barâo she is 25 and is from santa catarina, brasil. she is ready to work, well i hope. of course the house was a disaster worse then venda nova when we got there.. we didnt have enought time to do anything else but clean all day yesterday and didnt have enough time to email. pres gave permission today to write a little bit... well im not gonna lie im nervous, scared, feel the pressure, dont know the area, the people or what i should do but one thing i do know is that i go wehre the lord wants me to go and do my best so i just got to trust in the one that knows me best "thats it" (dads accent). wish me luck or rather pray for me please. i love you all dont have much time

até mais

2 corinthians 12:10

sister corbin

ps mom i got three packages!thank youuuuuu amber for the tooth brush yessssss exactly what i needed and the goodies toothank youuuuuuu and lauren too i loved the pics!!!

pss mom did you send a package with the photo chip? or am i missing that envelope or package too?

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

so much has happened this week... well first off CONFERENCE = DUH AMAZING.... the lord answered all of our prayers and we got to watch all 4 sessions. and of course we had investigators all at the right sessions. the first one needed to her about being alone and bam utchdorf settled that one.. the second session on saturday i was most nervous for bc we had people to take but they were all canceling... we were praying so hard and ended up with 3 people to take and of course bednar was the first talk.... we had investigators that needed to hear about repentance and their were at least 2 good ones about repentence in that session. sunday i got a text saying i needed to call an investigator that was going to get baptized after the first session... we were confused on why he needed us to call him.. we were out of minutes on our phone so we ran to the church to call him.. he didnt answer so we got on our knees and prayed for something to happen a few moments later we looked out of the bishops office THEY ARE HERE! we ran outside and said you made it! he said i called bc i wanted to know if i needed to bring a towel hahaha. o geese... brian got baptized after the first session the son of our family that we are helping to get married so the wife can get baptized. brian was so cute and excited to get baptized, he is an example for not only his little sisters but for his entire family..

i just want to talk about how much prayer is important. I have never prayed more in my life then i have on my mission so far.. prayer is everything " the purporse of prayer is not to alter the will of god but to obtain the blessings he is ready to give if we just humble ourselves and ask in faith" in 3 nephi 18:20 says whats soever ye shall ask the father in my name, which is right, beleiving that ye shall receive behold it shall be given unto you" i love this scripture bc its so true if we ask in faith for our heavenly father something good, just and righteous believing we will recieve he will give it... i cant count how many times we have prayed and our prayers were answered in the moment. our heavenly father wants to bless us but he can only do his part until we make the first step. i love it.

we are having success and the lord is blessing us for our efforts.. miracles happen daily. its always amazing to see the work of the lord in our lives everyday. i dont want to admit but im getting used to the miracles... i have to take a step back and say thank you because he puts blessings in our day to day that sometimes we forget the little ones.

at times i think about our work and how little we are actually sacrificing in the scheme of eternity. my hope and prayer is to try to help our brothers and sisters change their route in life so they can have a straight path to eternal life with our heavenly father. There is nothing more important, thats why we are here, to learn, to grow, to understand the plan, and then go back to him..

The mission has changed me without me even realizing it and its a gift that i dont think i will ever be able to repay.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

hey mommy... no the strike hasnt stopped its about 50% back it depends on where you live if the area where you live have people to deliever your mail you will get mail if not your out of luck as of now the area of the mission home is still on strike and no one is getting mail.. so well see, ps what did you put in the other packages bc welp im sick again! i work myself so hard that i get sick from exhaustion. ummmm okay

there was a broadcast of elder uck? can you send me it? ahhhhhhhh im praying to get to go to all the sessions but the lord did bless us! we get to watch the conference sessions in our chapel wooohoooooooooo our prayers were answered we dont have to travel 30 min both ways to watch it this means it will be so much easier to bring investigators to watch it! so i hope i get to see all the talks

so im super excited for this weekend its going to be super crazy busy trying to get people to all sessions were helping a less active get married and get back to church so his wife can get baptized were helping their son bryan get baptized this weekend. he is so cute, his name is bryan and is 8 years old.

This week was full of interesting stories to tell... our investigater makelly is amazing a true elect as we call it. she told sister batista on friday that saturday jehovahs witnesses were going to come to her house just to visit her and so we made sure we wouldnt come at the same time bc that would be awkward right ya soooooooo in brasil they use military time and sometimes they dont. makelly said 17 horas and sister batista heard 7 horas. 17= 5 o clock so what did we do we went at 5 o clock bc we thought they would come at 7 ahahah nope we got there sat down and heard the doorbell.. ha that was an experience but makelly is firm and was baptized sunday despite all the things that got in her way she put her faith and trust in the lord to follow his son. we are so proud of her!!! (ps mom did you receive photos from her she said she sent some to you i gave her your email)

a few funny stories

so our electric bill for some reason is late and bc the mail is on strike we cant send anything to pay it and so what happened is the company accidently switched our bill with our neighbors ahhahaha and they cut thier electricity instead of ours ha woops.

last night we left our investigators house way late and we had to run home... were about 10 min out and have to make it in 5 min... i looked behind me and sister batisita stopped bc she was tired and all the sudden i heard this homeless man yell " i see you guys every night running..why?!" then all the sudden in english he shouted "run girls run" hahahahaha its true we run home basically every night and the homeless man we always passed finally decided to voice his opinion about it ha i thought i would share.

I want to share a spiritual experience that has been happening alot these past couple of weeks.. that happened again this past sunday. we were teaching a family the restoration of the gospel it was my turn to share the vision of joseph smith, the spirit was so strong and no one could deny the difference that filled the room. the nephew said i know it is true.. i asked him how do you know? he responded " i know because i see it, i can see it in your eyes when you were telling the story about jose i knew you couldnt be lying" immediately following i felt the spirit to invite the aunt and the nephew to be baptized the aunt said "i know what you are saying is true bc i also can see it in you but as human beings we all have faults and i will continue where i am until the lord touches my heart.... silence filled the room and then i said " arent you feeling it now?" she said " yes".... the family knew the message was true, felt the quiet whisperings of the spirit but wasnt courageous enough to follow the straight and narrow path of the lord. we left the house knowing we did our part and sister batista looked at me and told me the same thing.. " i can see it too, when you teach, your different the spirit is in you" in that moment i reflected on my patriachal blessing that says " the light of christ will shine forth from you and you will touch the hearts of many. The holy ghost will testify in thier hearts that what you say is true".... i feel honored to be living literally the words written in my patriachal blessing.. i will never forget moments like these because its another testament to me that the church is true.. we have the truth on earth and those that are willing to hear his voice will follow. i know that the church is true bc i get re converted everyday. i told an investigator yesterday i dont remember the exact moment i can say i knew bc i feel it everyday testifying to me its truthfullness.

i love you all,

the gospel is true im sooooo excited for this weekend!!!

watch conf!

fique firme

com amor

sister corbin

romans 1:7

for the kingdom of god is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the holy ghost